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Former New York Giants DT Marvin Austin Visits Detroit Lions; Could Sign This Week

September 3rd, 2013 at 6:30 AM By Douglas Rush

One of the non surprising cuts the New York Giants made on Saturday night was the release of defensive tackle Marvin Austin, who never lived up to expectations after being drafted in the second round of the 2011 NFL Draft.

The former University of North Carolina graduate wasted no time in looking for work in the NFL, as Jason La Canfora of CBS Sports had reported that Austin was in Michigan on Labor Day for a visit with the Detroit Lions.

"Detroit Lions are hosting former Giants DT Marvin Austin for a visit today. Could be interesting in their strong rotation," he tweeted.

The Lions already have two top starting defensive tackles in Nick Fairley and Ndamukong Suh, but adding Austin as a backup would give Detroit solid depth at the position.

Mike Garafolo from USA Today reported that he expects Austin to sign with Detroit within the week, as they prepare for their opening game on Sunday against the Minnesota Vikings.

"No one guy gets it all. Just might seem that way. Anyway, I expect Austin signed quickly. That was the word anyway," he tweeted.

The 24-year-old Austin has played in just seven games and has eight career tackles with no sacks in two seasons in the NFL.

Austin may someday be good. But it was the right move to cut him. And let’s remember, the Giants are in “win now” mode and cannot wait another two seasons for a draft pick to “get it”. Analysts have been drooling over the quality of the Lions’ defensive front. So what does it say if they sign someone who wasn’t good enough to make our team?

I think too many people are refusing to believe what is right before their eyes. Our defensive front is as good as it gets. There is no other team in the league that has as much talent across the front of their defense.

John Mara, Jerry Reese and Tom Coughlin are betting on being able to win with a dynamic offense, a very solid set of special teams, and a tremendous defensive front. In today’s NFL that sounds like a pretty reasonable bet. You hope your defensive backfield plays well (and with Amukamara, Hosley, Rolle and Hill they’ve got two top players and two who could easily become that over the course of this season), and you hold your breath in regard to your linebackers, knowing you had to save dollars somewhere to stay under the cap. Then you pray to the Football Health Gods every morning and night.

I was just thinking we are deep enough that we can even afford losing 2 DTs. We still have Kuhn who isn’t great but a nice 4th DT that can rotate in and play a few snaps while helping out on special teams. I agree that our DT group looks even better than we could have hoped because both Rodgers & Patterson were healthy and brought their A game.

I always was skeptical on austin when I realized he had missed so much time at the end of college More than any other pick, Austin represents a desperation move in the draft room one of those guys you talk yourself into based on a small sample size that was more stale than not when they first looked at it

1. Baas still not practicing so the O-Line will almost definitely be Beaty Brewer Boothe Snee Pugh it is going to be very interesting to see if they can run left and what kind of pressure packages the Cowboys bring up the middle one would think that Gilbride would try and work in a bunch of outside runs, a couple of rollouts for Eli and more than a few screens we shall see

2. Cruz is sounding slightly better than 50/50 to play. Let’s hope. If he can’t go I don’t see how this offense can sustain anything. The Line is unlikely to provide Eli with consistent time to throw; thus Eli needs 2 guys he can throw to on instinct. Fingers crossed.

3. JPP keeps sounding like a guy who will not play opening night. Although Moore practiced without pads yesterday I’ve heard little on the state of his shoulder. That said, the DE position looks pretty thin to open the season.

4. The Cowboys O-Line looks like a mash of injury compensation like ours so both sides of the LOS are going to be very interesting Sunday night.

5. I was just looking at the Cowboys final roster — 6 DE’s, 3 DT’s, 4 CB’s, 6 S’s Not sure what they’re thinking but it looks like rush the passer, protect against the bomb

With this OL configuration and the Dallas DL we should be able to run up the middle. I do worry about Boothe some with shotgun snaps but he’s will have had 2 wks of practice of time at by Sunday. Picking up blitzes up the middle is a legit concern though more because of brewer. But Kiffin has never been a big blitz guy. The Tampa 2 as we have seen is not a blitz defense so our biggest weakness might really be exploited. And their DTs withouth Ratliff aren’t strong. Hatcher is pretty good now we can focus on him and should be able to control the middle.

Speaking of Barden here’s what I don’t get about outing him on IR. IR means that he can’t play for us this year. His injury seamed minor so to me I makes more sense to cut him and then he would be available if needed during the season. If injuries strike at WR he seemed like the logical choice to sign off the street. Now we are paying him, he can’t help us this year & I doubt he’s in the WR mix next year. It just doesn’t seem to make any sense.

Our PS WRs are guys that maybe can develop but I don’t think they could help us if needed. We will have to resort to the Hagan’s & Thomas’s of the world because it’s hard for a guy of the street to help at WR if he hasn’t been in our system before.